So this is my second attempt at growing chaeto in my refugium. I am running a 40 gallon display with a 20L sump. I originally tried growing chaeto using the stock light from the fluval evo 5 because it is what I had laying around. That did not seem to work and my guess is it was too much light and not the right spectrum.
So then I waited a little bit and picked up some more this time putting a finnex stingray as well as a finnex stingray clip over the sump. I had no rhyme or reason choosing these lights it just again was what I had lying around the house from some nano planted tanks. The chaeto seemed to be growing quite nicely this time staying clumped and showing a pretty deep green color. Although it was staying pretty thick it wasn't really gaining any size so I figure why not go for the Kessil H80 seems like a lot of people use that with great success saying that their chaeto just takes off.
Well when I switched to this the growth seemed to slow down. It seems as if the chaeto is slowly dying over time becoming more open and spread out and looking at it under other lights yesterday there were some white / clear pieces in the group. I have messed with intensity from medium to high and for the most part it doesn't seem to make a large difference. I am thinking that nitrate could be a limiting factor? I am feeding slightly less frequently than I was when I originally got it but I have added more fish since then too. Even still the nitrate is reading zero so it seems like it may be growing and utilizing just what it can based on the limited nutrients? Unfortunately I didnt take a reading before swapping the light so I am not sure as to what the nitrate was there, but a few days ago I was getting a phosphate reading of 0.25 so I have some phosphate but not nitrate so I was thinking that that should be enough for it?
I have also tried tweaking the light cycle. With the original lights I had a lighting cycle of 12-14 hours and that is what I originally started with when I swapped to the H80 but I saw it changing so I lowered and tried closer to 8-10 hours for a while. That didn't seem to help either so i think I am back to about 10 at this point.
Most tweaking I do is over at minimum a 2-4 week period so it wasn't like I was changing all of these things too frequently for the plant to adjust. I am familiar with plants from freshwater and realize a light change can cause some melting or die off but it doesnt seem to be like a quick die off and replenish but rather a drawn out slow die off.
What do other people think? Is it the nutrients? Or the lights?
So then I waited a little bit and picked up some more this time putting a finnex stingray as well as a finnex stingray clip over the sump. I had no rhyme or reason choosing these lights it just again was what I had lying around the house from some nano planted tanks. The chaeto seemed to be growing quite nicely this time staying clumped and showing a pretty deep green color. Although it was staying pretty thick it wasn't really gaining any size so I figure why not go for the Kessil H80 seems like a lot of people use that with great success saying that their chaeto just takes off.
Well when I switched to this the growth seemed to slow down. It seems as if the chaeto is slowly dying over time becoming more open and spread out and looking at it under other lights yesterday there were some white / clear pieces in the group. I have messed with intensity from medium to high and for the most part it doesn't seem to make a large difference. I am thinking that nitrate could be a limiting factor? I am feeding slightly less frequently than I was when I originally got it but I have added more fish since then too. Even still the nitrate is reading zero so it seems like it may be growing and utilizing just what it can based on the limited nutrients? Unfortunately I didnt take a reading before swapping the light so I am not sure as to what the nitrate was there, but a few days ago I was getting a phosphate reading of 0.25 so I have some phosphate but not nitrate so I was thinking that that should be enough for it?
I have also tried tweaking the light cycle. With the original lights I had a lighting cycle of 12-14 hours and that is what I originally started with when I swapped to the H80 but I saw it changing so I lowered and tried closer to 8-10 hours for a while. That didn't seem to help either so i think I am back to about 10 at this point.
Most tweaking I do is over at minimum a 2-4 week period so it wasn't like I was changing all of these things too frequently for the plant to adjust. I am familiar with plants from freshwater and realize a light change can cause some melting or die off but it doesnt seem to be like a quick die off and replenish but rather a drawn out slow die off.
What do other people think? Is it the nutrients? Or the lights?
